Maple Ridge’s Anthony DiNicolo has been named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic team for the second straight year.
DiNicolo, a senior defender with Simon Fraser University’s men’s soccer team, is pursuing a degree in engineering and has a 3.44 grade point average.
“Engineering is a pretty tough and demanding program and it’s definitely a challenge to balance school and soccer,” said DiNicolo. “It takes time and commitment to be successful. It’s great that we were so successful on the field this season and to be recognized for my hard work in the classroom makes this season mean that much more.”
To be eligible for the GNAC academic team, student-athletes must be a letter winner, have a minimum grade point average of 3.20 and be in at least their second year of competition at their university.
DiNicolo and the SFU Clan men’s soccer team clinched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship for the second year in a row last month.
DiNicolo is coming off a junior campaign that saw him named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), in addition to being named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Academic Team.
DiNicolo was a critical member of last season’s 19-2-0 Clan team, and has started all five SFU games this season, helping the team to a 5-0 record, with only one goal against.
DiNicolo and teammate Max Baessato, also from Maple Ridge, were also named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference first all-star team on Tuesday.